'The Endless Cycle' Revisited

I originally dropped this in the fixer board, but I think it'll get a bit more exposure here. SO, without further ado:

OK, just picked up this game and started playing, which'll help explain my ignorance if it surfaces throughout this post.

I started a fixer, and love the idea behind it, don't mind the painfully expensive nano, not really complaining. My issue comes from being a VERY low level (yes 5) and trying to get rolling. In order do get anywhere of course you need money and 'stuff'. I also started after a lot of the nerfs, so I have no starting capitol.
Here starts the endless cycle:

1) In order to get money, one must do missions (I'm not going into the broken mission issue, it's for once irrelevant to my point)

2) At my level, the missions are populated mostly with human NPCs which regenerate faster than me, have more hp than me, and hit a WHOLE lot harder than me.

3) To survive this, one must have a load of health packs, or 10 hours to spare sitting while you regen.

4) In order to get enough health packs to survive, you need money; more than you'd get for finishing the mission Go to point 1)

5) To avoid needing health packs, better armor would work which you can either buy; Go to point 1) or claim off of mission prizes; Go to point 2)

6) Another option would be to get a weapon that will do more than minimum damage against human NPCs, or a weapon with a higher minimum damage. To accaomplish this you can either buy; Go to point 1) or claim off of mission prizes; Go to point 2)

7) One can also drop the mission all the way down to easy. Great, that helps a little. You still do min damage against humans, but it's survivable. The catch is you get less money (need more? go to point 1) and 'inferior' (couldn't come up with the word I wanted) equipment AND you stack up on EXP. This trap happens when you inadvertantly level, the easiest mission becomes harder, and your previously bad equipment is now WORSE, oh and you're still broke (go to point 1). That coupled with the equipment you now need is better, hence more expensive and you're back at point 1 again.

So my question lies in HOW to avoid this viscious cycle? Even if tradeskills worked, they cost more to create things than you get from sales, and aren't a viable source of income to kick yourself out of 'The Endless Cycle'. If I hadn't played EQ, and was completely new to the idea of MMORPGs I'd have bailed by now. I'm hoping that things will change for the better (for once) over time. I'm not sure how much patience I can have when my character REGARDLESS of class can't do anything to break 'The Endless Cycle'.

Any one thing getting changed in the list would break the cycle, and multiple fixes would make the game enjoyable, but until then I'm taking any and all suggestions on how to break out under the current regime. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't really want to drop the game, the potential is there....

JB